Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 9.djvu/270

258 THOMAS WHITTAKEE : earth to slay or expel certain new monsters that trouble it. By these the spirit of superstition and religious persecution is signified ; and this expulsion of monsters from the earth is a second meaning of the title of the allegory. The virtues to which the gods assign the chief places in heaven are, in order of dignity, Truth, Providence or Pru- dence, Wisdom, Law, and Judgment. Truth is explained in the dialogues to be, in the highest sense, identical with the first Principle of things, with the One and with the Good. This first and highest Truth is superior to Jupiter. Besides the truth that is said to be " before things " as being their cause and principle, there is a truth that is " in things " and a truth that is " after things ". The truth that is in things is that by participation in which they have being. The truth that is after things is the knowlege of them as it is in the human mind. Providence is " the companion of Truth," and is identical with liberty and with necessity. In its lower form it is called Prudence, and is the discursive knowledge which the mind has of the order of the universe. Wisdom, like Truth and Providence, has a higher and lower form. Its higher form is identical with Truth and with Providence. Its lower form is not truth itself but partici- pates in truth, as the moon shines by the light of the sun. The first Wisdom is above all things, the second is " com- municated by words, elaborated by the arts, polished by discussions, delineated by writing ". Law is the daughter of Wisdom. It is by Law that states are maintained. No law is to be accepted that has not for its end to direct the actions of men in such a way that they may be useful to human society. Next to Law has been placed Judgment, into whose hands Jove has put the sword and the crown, for the punishment of the bad and the reward of the good. By the representative of this virtue services and injuries done to the commonwealth are to be judged greater than all others ; internal sins are to be judged sins only so far as they are capable of having an external effect ; repentance is to be approved but not to be esteemed equal to innocence. That which is brought out most clearly in this distribution of the chief virtues is the importance that Bruno attaches to knowledge as an essential condition of right action. The distribution of the virtues that follow judgment has less purely philosophical interest ; but the discussions of parti- cular virtues help to show us what was Bruno's moral ideal. They display his admiration for the illustrious characters of Greece and Home and his preference of the antique type of the hero to the mediaeval type of the saint.